Christian Gourcuff resigns from National Football Team

Christian Gourcuff has resigned from his post as the Algerian national team boss.

The move ends several weeks of speculation claiming that Gourcuff has had the idea of returning to Europe. The former French international came to the job in 2014. He still had two years left on his contract, but the Algerian football Federation claimed that the contract was mutually terminated after request from the Frenchman. Algeria have done reasonably well under the regime of Gourcuff. They are currently top of the Africa Cup of Nations qualification for the 2017 edition.

Three wins and dropping only two points in the four games have started expectation that the nation could be one of the challengers at the tournament. His sudden resignation, though, will come as a shock to many. Algeria need to win only one of the remaining games in order to reach the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. The national team will be up against Seychelles in June followed by a match against Lesotho in September. Both these are winnable matches for the extremely Algerian team and they need toget only one win in order to ensure the qualification. The national team has managed to enter into the last stages of the World Cup 2018 qualification.

“The Algerian Football Federation has amicably terminated the contract of national coach Christian Gourcuff at his request. He will be replaced in the interim by Nabil Neghiz, assistant national coach,” read a statement given by the Algerian football Federation. Speculation has been intense that Gourcuff was considering his post since there was not much support from the public for the work that he has done. Under the regime of Frenchman, the best achievement was finishing in the quarter-finals of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. Fans, though, were expecting a title win for the national team.